Book Reviews

Book reviews: Rosemary Crompton (ed), Restructuring Gender Relations and Employment: The Decline of the Male Breadwinner Susan Eisenberg, We’ll Call You If We Need You: Experiences of Women Working in Construction Fiona M. Wilson, Organizational Behaviour: A Critical Introduction Rohan Collier, Equality in Managing Service Delivery Joyce K. Fletcher, Disappearing Acts: Gender, Power and Relational Practice at Work Miriam Glucksmann, Cottons and Casuals : The Gendered Organisation of Labour in Time and Space     

高Si/C高强度铸铁中C、Si、Si/C的作用及其选择

本文叙述了高Si/C高强度灰铸铁中碳、硅元素存在的形式及其对结晶过程的影响。试验表明,当碳当量一定时,随着Si/C的升高,初生奥氏体枝晶数量增多并且细化和强化,从而构成了强度的基础。该铸铁的强度模式应为“初生奥氏+共晶团”。本文对E型石墨存在的必然性和合理性也进行了讨论。     

What types of occupations are women entering? : Determinants of changes in female representation: 1970–2000

Although a consistent body of research has demonstrated that occupational segregation is highly consequential for women's economic standing, we know little about the processes that contribute to changes in levels of sex segregation. In this study, we examine those factors that contribute to changes in the percent of women in detailed occupational categories in the United States. Since we are most concerned with the economic consequences of this type of segregation, we analyze a group of high-paying, male-dominated occupations that, if better integrated, would contribute most to earnings equality. We find that occupations to which relatively high percentages of women aspired and occupations that are growing have been experiencing above-average increases in the percentage of women, while occupations characterized by male-stereotyped task profiles have been witnessing below-average increases. Additionally, our results suggest the presence of a ceiling effect: it is easier for women to break into male-dominated occupations initially than to sustain growth. Our analysis suggests that both supply and demand-side explanations provide insight into the processes contributing to increases in the occupations that we examine, although it can be very difficult to distinguish between supply and demand-side elements; indeed they may occur simultaneously.     

美国进步运动时期黑人问题边缘化初探

19世纪末20世纪初,黑人问题在美国社会相当严重,但进步运动却并没有将黑人包括在社会改进计划之中。联邦政府不仅不给黑人“公平施政”和“新自由”,而且把种族隔离制度引入政府部门。进步运动是白人社会主导的改革运动,关注的只是白人在工业化中面临的问题。同时,种族优越论在美国社会占据主导,白人社会把黑人的不幸看作是自然选择的结果。而黑人内部斗争路线分歧严重,尚不能形成有效的斗争力量。这些都导致了黑人在进步运动中日益被边缘化。     

Redoing Gender: How Women in the Funeral Industry Use Essentialism for Equality

Although some research considers women's participation in traditionally male‐dominated jobs as an ‘undoing’ of the gender system, other scholars argue that women's participation in non‐traditional roles can actually maintain hegemonic masculinity. Because women have recently entered the funeral industry in unprecedented numbers, the profession offers a unique context to study how women negotiate a sense of belonging in male‐dominated fields. I draw on 22 interviews with women in the funeral industry to reveal how gender is done and undone in an occupational context. In what Hughey ( 2010 . Social Problems, 57, 653–679) refers to as a ‘paradox of participation’, I argue that women in the funeral industry redefine the image of the ideal funeral director by using gender essentialist logic, which originally acted as a barrier to their entry to the field, to justify their participation. By showing how gender essentialism and egalitarianism can constitute reinforcing logics instead of an opposing binary, this research contributes to the literature concerning women in non‐traditional roles.     

Gender,Pay and Work Satisfaction at a UK University

This article examines a modern, former polytechnic granted the status of university in 1992, to illustrate the state gender pay gap in the UK and suggests that to talk of the state pay gap is too simplistic as it does not take into account variations in the size of the pay gap in different job grades. The article also examines satisfaction levels with pay for two groups of staff, administrative and academic and shows how satisfaction with pay, promotion and conditions also varies between the grades. Previous research that concluded that women are more satisfied with their pay than men is, again, too simplistic as it does not consider the affect of staff grade. The article argues that there is a link between the size of the pay gap, staff grade, occupational gender segregation and expressing dissatisfaction.     

‘A city is not a company,a flat is not a commodity’: urban movements and defenders of tenants’ rights in Poland

This article describes urban and tenant movements that have been created in Poland in response to the commercialization of urban space and the complete commodification of the right to housing. On the one hand, spatial segregation in Polish cities was fully approved by the state; on the other hand, it became a source of income for new owners of acquired buildings, who often used criminal methods to intimidate tenants. Brutal evictions encountered social resistance from the emerging tenant movement, non-institutionalized left-wing communities and endangered tenants, who were often pensioners and members of the lower classes. The author mentions undertaken and possible methods of social self-defence such as eviction blockades and rent strikes. He also raises the question of whether urban movements can become part of a broader social movement for systemic change.     

Gender,Occupation, and Promotion to Management in the Nonprofit Sector

Although one can assume the work values within nonprofit organizations promote gender equality in promotion decisions, there is preliminary evidence that in the nonprofit sector women are underrepresented in higher management positions. Whereas the mechanisms resulting in underrepresentation of women in management have been studied extensively in for‐profit organizations, little is known about these mechanisms in nonprofit organizations. Is gender in nonprofit organizations—even given the underlying values of these organizations—an impediment to attaining a management position? This article presents a case study of employment patterns within the Dutch section of the humanitarian INGO Médecins Sans Frontières and focuses particularly on the effects of gender and occupation on transitions to management. The case study organization represents a “critical case” because the nature of this organization's work environment can be expected to result in a relatively high percentage of women in management. Employee records (N = 2,247) were analyzed using event history models. We found that women made the transition to management less rapidly than men, even when controlling for factors like age, previous work experience, and nationality. However, gender differences were completely explained by occupation. Those employees in female‐dominated occupations (in this case, medical personnel such as nurses) had a lower promotion‐to‐management rate than those in male‐dominated occupations (in this case, nonmedical personnel such as financial officers), irrespective of their gender. This case study highlights the importance to nonprofit management research of studying the effects of occupational sex segregation on promotion.     

The Effect of Occupational Sex Composition on the Gender Gap in Workplace Authority

This article compares women and men's attainment of workplace authority in female-dominated, mixed, and male-dominated occupations. It is based on a representative mobility study of Jewish women in the Israeli labor force conducted in 1991–1992. Two sets of hypotheses are offered based on two competing theories. The first theory predicts that in female occupations women have more influence and mutual support than in male occupations, and, hence, they will have more access to authority. The opposing perspective argues that in male-dominated occupations the competition between women and men is weaker, and therefore men have a smaller incentive to discriminate against women. Our findings support the second argument. The gender gap in authority is larger in female-dominated occupations, and women have the highest chances to have authority when they work in male occupations; men have similar chances, no matter in which type of occupation they are employed.     

The relationship between neighborhood racial concentration and verbal ability: An investigation using the institutional resources model

Relatively few studies examine the relationship between racial residential segregation and educational or cognitive outcomes. Using data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health and the institutional resources model of neighborhood effects, I investigate one account of how macrostructural arrangements between race, neighborhood segregation, and school quality interact to produce inequalities in test scores. Consistent with the institutional resources model, results suggest that school quality varies across neighborhoods based, in part, on their degree of racial concentration. Indeed, school quality and other school characteristics mediate the relationship between racial concentration and verbal skills, particularly among black males. These findings have implications not only for inequalities in cognitive skills among blacks across residential space, but also between blacks and whites given high levels of residential segregation in the United States. In sum, findings illustrate yet another way in which residential segregation contributes to, and not merely reflects, racial inequalities.